Baton Rouge -- LSU will play SEC East foes Georgia and Florida along with six West Divisions rivals as part of its eight-game 2013 conference schedule released Thursday by the league office.

The overall conference schedule is considered a bridge to the 2014 slate and not based on any previous scheduling format. SEC athletic directors will convene in the spring of 2013 to start working on schedules for 2014 and beyond.

"As we began working on the 2013 football schedule, it became apparent that the conference would need another year of the 'bridge' schedule to make everything work," said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. "I appreciate the SEC transition team and our athletics directors, who came together to put this schedule in place. We look forward to starting with our new scheduling rotation in 2014."

LSU will play at Georgia in its second SEC game on Sept. 28 and play host to Florida two weeks later on Oct. 12. LSU will close the season with home games against Texas A&M Nov. 23 and Arkansas Nov. 30.

The eight-game conference schedule consists of six games played inside the division and two games against teams from the opposite division. The cross-divisional common opponents that were previously announced by the conference will not take place until 2014. All 14 schools will have two open dates with 14 playing weekends.

LSU has an unusual schedule in that it will play eight consecutive weeks before an open date, followed by a trip to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama and then another open dates.